World Of Strays
by Enderkiller77
Summary: Blake Belladonna has been traded, used, and abused all through out her life as a slave. She expects that her pitiful life will go on in the same routine till she dies. Well, that is, until she's taken in by a new owner; a huntress by the name of Yang Xiao Long. ( HIATUS... MAYBE? IM REGAINING SOME MOTIVATION. )
1. Trigger Warning

******WARNING******

**This story will contain possible triggering events related to slavery, racism, war, rape, abuse, and physiologic breakdowns. I do not wish to trigger anyone with this story and if you are triggered by these things, please exit out of this story now. This story is intended for mature audiences and should not be read if you are not ready for this kind of material. Please acknowledge this warning for I honestly do not want to have anyone being hurt or reminded of past events that have negatively effected them. If you are ready for this kind of reading, continue to the next chapter.**

_**THIS STORY HAS ALSO BEEN REWRITTEN SO IT IS ACTUALLY COHERENT. IF YOU ARE A NEW READER DON'T WORRY ABOUT THIS BUT OLD READERS SHOULD RE-READ THE STORY BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE.**_

******WARNING******


	2. Chapter 1

The world on Remnant was predominated by two races. Humans and Faunus.

Both were cut from the same blood, same skins, eyes, bones. At the core, they were one in the same and nearly impossible to differentiate.

But, it was on the outside were differences were strongest. Faunus were different, for they had characteristics of animals. Horns, extra ears, tails, feathers, fur, it was all there. Humans did not have this, and because of that they were confused.

Confusion turns to fear. Fear turns to hate.

You could say the Faunus nation had been built from hate. They were less in numbers, forced to group together to survive against the onslaught of dangers the world threw at them. Humans far out weighed them and took advantage of that, creating walls and lives as far away from Faunus as possible; not wanting to live near the other race. It was a shared sentiment. Faunus did not want to interact with such an isolating race. So they built their own cities, their own worlds, in order to compensate.

That would have been fine on its own. Yet, nothing in the world can be fine for long.

Hate has the ability to turn people to do horrible, horrid things.

As the both populations grew and their land couldn't hold in the worlds they had made, both sides broke.

It was a bloody war.

Fifty years later and it seemed nothing had changed. But things do, over time, and both sides always lost when they thought they had won.

The Faunus were experiencing an intense population crisis because of the excessive war volunteers. The humans were experiencing a financial crisis, because of spending and lack of prioritization. A truce was born. One with strict borders and harsh rulings.

The idea was shot down by thousands of Faunus and humans alike instantly, the hate was ironically the only thing both races could agree on, but after around a year of weaving though angry mobs and horrifying cries and screams, the world did get their truce.

It was shaky at best, crowds of hatred still formed and slaughtered anyone from another race besides their own. Eventually, both sides agreed to stay in designated parts of the world; as far away from each other as possible of course.

Faunus took the countries of Mystral and Atlas; while humans took over Vytal and Vauco.

That didn't mean all was solved that simply, as nothing in life is reached easily, there was still the small detail of war prisoners that both sides dealt with. The Faunus had killed any human who had been captured, so all that was left was to reclaim the thousands of war prisoners the humans had took.

The Faunus were only allowed to take around a few hundred or so, and the rest of the Faunus war prisoners would be taken as slaves. It was mere compensation for the dead human prisoners.

Despite the growing riots and the loud yells of the Faunus to return their fellow kin to the light of freedom, it was decided that the humans could use the remaining Faunus for slaves. After all, the Faunus leaders didn't want another war on their hands. More bloodshed would not get them anywhere, besides, once their forces regained strength they would be able to reclaim their enslaved kin and destroy the humans. At least, that's what they reasoned for themselves in order to stop the soul crushing guilt of dooming so many to slavery.

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* * *

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It had been five years from the first time Blake saw shackles and the cold glares of pure hatred from the human handlers responsible for enslaving her. The war had ended around a mere three and a half years ago and Blake knew that she would never be free.

The cat eared Faunus never liked dwelling on her races failed promises, seeing no point in remembering something so hopeful. Though losing hope didn't mean she couldn't keep her life. Blake did keep little somethings to hold on to from the times when she wasn't reduced to a mere house cat who had to follow her masters whims. Her intense love of literature and the occasional habit of daydreaming about writing remained strong, even though she didn't have many encounters with books as of late. She would still deadpan with sarcasm and give a little smirk when she found humor or joy in anything. That was about it though. The rest had been pushed out of her by beatings and harsh words or were simply forgotten.

A clean piece of paper and a spare pen are all Blake really wants, and even though slaves are rarely given anything even remotely considered fine-quality; Blake is quite obedient and is sometimes given small safe havens in writing.

She does try to ask for any reading magazines or books but it is immediately turned down. To much creativity and a Faunus may snap or get the 'clever' idea to escape. Despite the fact the humans are so sure of themselves, they are still cowards and only make rules to protect themselves and push away their fears.

Blake swears that she would go insane having to deal with such an ignorant, violent race if she was alone.

There are other slaves too. Most are war captives and former Faunus civilians taken during raids, but the rebellious ones are locked away in prison and Blake wishes they were free. Some haven't known freedom. Born in captivity, because humans have taken prisoners since the start of the war, but those are only ten year old and young teenagers. Babies are taken away to places nobody wants to know.

It only goes to show how good the humans are at their job.

Out of all the slaves in her holding area Blake had only kept two friends close by in the time she was at the slave hold. She was still friends and acquaintances with the other war members in holder but she had mostly kept her distance. She didn't want to get to attached to a lot of people at once. Her heart might not be able to take it.

A shy brown haired rabbit Faunus was Blake's closest friend. Velvet was probably one of the only reasons Blake had kept sane in the holders. She always knew how to calm her friend down, to calm the anger in her heart, to stop the panic when it became too much. Velvet had a light soothing voice that was somehow able to with stand all the cruel fights and ruff scratchy calls of insults. Her accent was charming and it came from the deep reaches of Mystral. Both of them bonded by remembering the lands flowing valleys and rolling hills together, talking about the bright sun and fresh air over meals of black goop and mold.

Blake's other close friend was a rambunctious monkey Faunus who was much to optimistic for his own good. Sun always sounded happy, and if you had the ability to only hear him you would think he was at a carnival. He loved disobeying the human handlers, stealing extra food, playing pranks on them, and all around generally messing with his captors. The only thing Sun loved more than tricking the humans was being the center of attention for his other Faunus. Sun tried to be everyone's friend, and ended up being quite popular. Especially with Velvet. Blake often mused that the both of them would have made a great couple if it weren't for the whole slave industry they were trapped in.

For some reason, Velvet had always insisted on getting rid of all the knots in Blake's hair and animal ears. Apparently it was 'necessary' for her because it had something to do with aura flow and how being clean felt nice so it might help her. Blake never fully understood her logic but had figured that the process was more for Velvet then her. It gave her friend a thing to do with her hands that didn't involve scrubbing floors or doing dishes. In return, Blake did Velvets hair and ears, and both Faunus found the process quite satisfying even though the smoothness and the absence of tangles never lasted for more than a few hours.

Sun always let Velvet do her traditional hair brushing, and while he complained that it was a lame thing for dumb girls, Blake and Velvet knew he secretly enjoyed it. Plus the horrible excuses he made to halfheartedly get away were funny. There were times when all three of them would gather together and pull a prank on an unsuspecting human guard. Sometimes they would just relax a bit and talk about ideas for Blake's imaginary stories and she loved to based characters off both of them. Most often they would just be near each other.

Just to stay close together. It wasn't romantic when it was all of them, huddled together wrapped under hole filled blankets and thriving off each others warmth. It was nice.

Blake didn't like to think about them.

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* * *

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The light pitter patter noise of rain is the only thing keeping Blake awake. The car has been noiselessly driving along the road for a numerous amount of hours at night without pause but Blake knows not to fall asleep on these long car trips. If you do you never know what might happen next. Always keeping her guard up has become an instinct now.

To entertain herself Blake smooths out the creases of her slave attire, dark grey long pants and an even darker shirt. Once completed with that task, Blake returns to the normal quiet and stares up the black ceiling of the car. It's rarely silent and she doesn't want to waste these valuable moments of calm. Blake is in no rush to get to her new owner, though she knows that her thoughts aren't worth a grain of sand to anyone.

Blake is already preparing for the things that she will eventually have to do for the new owner, already thinking of the mystery person as that, her owner. In the end no matter what she does, the owner is always the master and she is always the slave. No bargaining or changing that fact. Of course, acceptance and approval are two very different things and while Blake does accept, she does not approve. No one can truly own her.

The human handler stops the car suddenly, almost launching Blake out of her seat since the car has absolutely not seat belts or handles for her to grab on to. The handler opens the door and pulls her into the open rather roughly but Blake expects this by now, and is used to pain of this level.

Once on her feet, Blake takes quick glances at the house that she supposes will be her 'home' for the rest of her pitiful life. It's not biggest place she's been assigned to but that doesn't mean it's small either. Blake doesn't know what material it's made of but she's honestly impressed with the battle scars the house shows, with multiple scratches and badly remade foundation in some places.

Blake realizes that it is possible that her new owner had caused these markings on the home and any sense of awe is replaced by fear and the stench of dread. It's not a feeling she's unfamiliar with. Looking over at the handler again, she smirks slightly as the clumsy human momentarily trips on rock he did not see. Sometimes being a Faunus with night vision is quite rewarding.

She is taken to her new owner, a blonde huntress by the name of Yang Xiao Long, and she observes her owner converse with the handler about some problem with the forms or something like that. Blake tuns it out with the talent of years of practice, instead favoring to look outside by use of the window. The night time rain looks much prettier when you're not in it.

Eventually the money is exchanged and the handler leaves, but not before "patting" Blake's back hard, almost enough to make her stumble forward. It serves as a reminder of her place, as if she needed one. Blake turns her head to look at Yang. She gives Blake a quick examination by walking around her and taking in her new slave's appearance before shrugging and asking Blake to follow her.

Blake obeys immediately and Yang leads her downstairs, saying something about how Blake should rest up, though the Faunus in question isn't listening to hard. The words come out as a loud hum and Blake finds it rather odd to go to sleep at night, as she's always been the nocturnal type.

The room that Blake will stay in is rather basic, a simple bed in the right hand corner, a sight that surprises her greatly since she has grown used to sleeping on floors; then again, the frame holding it up looks like it's about to crack at any second. There's a blanket, which is an obnoxiously bright shade of yellow and Blake fears her eyes may burn at the very sight of it.

Other then the bed, everything else is rather normal. There's a small wardrobe, though Blake knows she'll never be able to fill the whole thing. She only has the clothes she wearing, an extra pair of that for spare, and white pajamas consisting of another T-shirt and shorts. To the other side, there's a sink with no soap or mirror near it. There's also a tap in the far left corner of the room which it to be used as her shower. Right next to it is a toilet.

It's actually much more comfortable here then the slave holder, and Blake finally has some amount of privacy here. First order of business is to put her clothes in the wardrobe, which Blake does with practiced ease. She was taught how to fold things neatly in the slave holders after all. Blake proceeds to wash her face, finding out in the process that no matter what tap she pulls, there's only cold water.

That out of the way, Blake dresses in her night attire and lies on the creaky bed to sleep as long as she is allowed to. At no points at all during her night does she feel like she can escape but she dreams of smiling rabbits and laughing monkeys.

She forgets the dream the next day.

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* * *

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Blake gets up at seven in the morning, having a record breaking six hours of sleep. It's definitely more then she usually gets, and Blake tenses up because surely she overslept and will have to face punishment for doing so. The anxiety quickly passes though, and Blake reasons that Yang would have waken her up by now if she wanted her slave to start working.

The cat Faunus waits in her room, not daring to leave because she knows better then to search around the house without Yang's permission. Blake sighs and curls up on the bed, day dreaming about books for what she believes to be the better part of an hour.

Eventually, Yang does come and knocks at the door, surprising Blake who was used to owners immediately entering. Blake lets out a shaky _Come in_, absolutely despising that her voice would even dare to betray her to nervousness. Especially since these are the first words she will speak to Yang.

Yang doesn't enter the room, instead choosing to stand in the door frame. Blake feels her lips almost curl into a smirk, her owner has no idea what to do with her. For one fleeting second it's as if Blake has all the power over her owner, since Yang looks so lost that Blake would pity her. Would. The reality chases the moment away all to quickly when Yang gets some idea as to what orders are and tells Blake to clean the house at her own pace.

Blake almost wants to laugh. If she was really allowed to work at her own pace, Blake wouldn't be doing anything for this woman or even be a slave for dusts sake! Blake shouldn't be given a choice, and so she replaces Yang's orders with her own that sates that she must do it as neat and fast as possible. Blake thinks that ironically enough, she had just chosen to replace Yang orders with more firm ones. The cat Faunus felt somewhat happy with the fact, though she's not quite sure why.

Yang leads her to where the cleaning supplies are and leaves to do it, saying how she has a call about some Grimm attacking a small settlement near here and the huntress leaves.

Blake remembers a time when she wanted to be a huntress, it was when she was much younger of course and had never been shown a whip or a hint of slavery before. The younger her was blind to all the dangers, only wishing to charge into battle and slay all Grimm and humans who stood in her way. Her mentor, Adam always smiled when Blake shared her dream to him, and he would indulge her fantasies by pretending to be a Grimm and chase her around for an hour or two.

Blake loved those times, when she wasn't a slave and had never been forced to anything she didn't want to do. Of course, all dreams die and Blake's did when Adam died. Blake had to get so caught up in fighting and the blood that she didn't notice how a human aimed for her with a loaded rifle. She did notice how Adam pushed her out of the way, just enough so she didn't get hit, but enough to have her mentors bloody corpse lay slump on her because she couldn't fight well enough.

Her dream died and so did her freedom that day. Blake figures that this blonde bimbo of a huntress has no idea what pain is and how it feels to see someone you love die. Humans never face that because they are to scared to really hunt and fight and protect. They probably rely on machines to fight battles for them now that the war is over.

Blake sighs and goes to examine the rest of the house. She finds it in good condition, by good she means that it hasn't been overflowed with trash or smells like the dead has risen. Blake knows that Yang hasn't been trained to be a cleaner like she is, but she can't help but point out all of the things she finds wrong with the home.

Blake's begins scrubbing and cleaning, sitting on her knees and rubbing the floor until jolts of pain spark through her arms and her back aches. Despite the fact that Blake figures her owner seems to be more on the lenient side, she doesn't stop until she can't hold any cleaning utensils anymore because she knows that she's done all she can to clean the house.

Blake's stomach lets out an agonizing gurgle and she picks herself up, moving to the kitchen and hopes that Yang let her have some food. She hasn't eaten in two days after all.

Blake finds a note taped to one of the kitchen drawers.

_\- Eat whatever you want, make it reasonable. Don't do anything stupid. -_

Blake lets out a smile at how trustworthy Yang is with her. An proper owner should have left out a plate of slop or at least a more intimidating note. This Yang person really did have absolutely no idea on how to use a slave.

Blake concludes that Yang was just pressured by her peers to get a slave and the huntress had probably done so in order to show Blake off and stick with the crowd.

How pathetic. Then again, what did she expect from a human?

Blake could insult Yang for the rest of the day but her stomach lets out another growl and she decides to grab a bite to eat. A bite is an severe understatement because Blake makes herself a meal the likes of which she hasn't made ever since she was taken from her last owner. In actuality it's only two tuna sandwiches and some vegetables but Blake eats them slowly and savors the taste crawl through her taste buds and down to her stomach. The food tastes utterly amazing to Blake and she wants to just make so many more and drown herself in food but she knows she can't. Her owner is a huntress after all. Blake has only had served ordinary humans who didn't have a semblance or aura. Taking a beating from her new owner could prove lethal and Blake knows to not take a risk. Blake packs up everything and washes the dishes she had used, and is about to return to her cleaning before she hears the door unlock and Yang walks through.

The huntress looks about the same as she did when she had left, with the difference of a few scrapes and bandages covering her body. Yang looks at Blake and tells her to make her some food as soon as possible and deliver it to her room. The blonde stamps up to her room and Blake can even hear Yang's bed spring a little despite the fact that Blake is downstairs and Yang is on the top floor.

Of course Yang didn't specify what kind of food she wanted, leaving Blake to decide. Going the simple method, she makes a quick stew mixed with various meats and vegetables. Once she's done Blake considers spitting in the food or sticking a her finger in it with the hope that there's still some cleaning products under her fingernails. Blake decides against it since that's a petty and simple way to attack Yang. There's plenty of other methods Blake could use to torment her in more complex ways. It could also be because she pitied Yang seeing how tired she was, but Blake knew far more levels of tiredness then that, making the very idea invalid.

Blake snaps out of her train of thought and brings the food, which is lavishly poured into a bowl, and carefully placed on another plate to make it look as pleasing as possible. Blake smirks at the thought of Yang thinking that her slave actually gave a shit about her well being, when that couldn't be farther from the truth.

Blake knocks on Yang's door, not out of politeness but because it's what she was taught. Yang tells her to come in and Blake notices how Yang's voice cracks ever so slightly. The Faunus can't tell why, but she doesn't care anyway.

As Blake steps into Yang's bedroom she almost drops the bowl due to the intense feeling of being overwhelmed. She doesn't show it on the surface, instead focusing on putting the food down on the nearest empty table. This room makes her feel rather detached from her life, and Blake imagines that she would have a room like this if she was free in with other Faunus. If she was free, Blake would probably have a nice quiet room to work on her writing and work on becoming a White Fang huntress. The imaginary room would be her's, something that none could take away. Some place that she could finally relax and not have to get up after only a few hours of sleep.

None of Blake's inner thoughts are voiced or shown, she knows better than to complain or voice her thoughts. Yang thanks Blake for the meal and Blake bows to her owner and backs out of Yang's room. She quickly reminds herself that everything in Yang's room is Yang's, not hers. With the reassurance in Blake's mind, she steels herself for the next time she has to enter Yang's room.

A few hours of hard scrubbing and mopping later, Blake is called into Yang's room again. Blake enters again and sits next to Yang since the huntress did direct her there. It's surprisingly comfortable but Blake feels out of place with the lavishness of it since she hasn't touched something this nice in a long time. Yang asks Blake if she can polish weapons and when Blake nods, Yang hands her a gauntlet which she calls Ember Cecilia and a cleaning cloth. Blake examines at the weapon and seeing no real dangers on it, starts to polish the hard metal. Blake thinks the weapon is far to simple and doesn't seem to pack enough of a punch to knock over a Grimm, but she doesn't voice the thoughts. Hell, Blake doesn't say much to any human because once she starts to speak it always lead to punishment one way or another. Plus she can never stop with the sarcasm and irony.

"So, what do you like to do?" Yang asks, trying to make some conversation.

Blake is forced to speak at this point so she guesses she might as well test her owner out. "I believe you should already know what I like. My working specialties, or my talents I guess, are shown on the profile you received when you bought me. I believe it states how I am well versed of many manners of literature and how I'm also very educated and can write extremely descriptively and be a handy scribe. It also shows how much I enjoy tormenting my owners with snarky comments and intense sarcasm. If I remember clearly, it also dictates that I should be punished with lashing and beatings if I do."

"D-Did you just quote the profile exactly?"

"Of course Mistresses."

Yang pauses and eyes Blake with mild confusion before deciding to push the subject even more,"So.. You like to write?"

"Does it matter if I do?" Blake retorts, making sure she sounds as uninterested as possible.

This causes Yang to give Blake a confused look, "What do you mean it doesn't? Everyone has a thing they like to do."

"Of course Mistress, but in my place in your human system my interests do not matter. If you ask me to write I will, it doesn't matter if I enjoy it or if I despise it. I am the slave and I must obey you." Blake explains.

"I'm not going to say you can't enjoy stuff." Yang say.

"How selfless of you. Are you now going to say that you won't sneak into the room I sleep in and during midnight take advantage of me? Slavery is a day and night job and as if I don't expect you to at least give me some new scar, mental or physical. Or maybe both, I'll never know. Humans are rather unpredictable." Blake says this rather nonchalantly, as if this was a normal everyday conversation.

Yang had the exact opposite expression, her face twisted in some distinct form of horror and dis-belief. The blonde huntress gave a wide-eyed look at Blake in complete shock that the Faunus would even mention the thought that she would do that.

"Wh-What?! I wouldn't do that!" Yang hurriedly yells, immediately attempting to deny the claim.

"Of course you won't Mistress. Your slave will believe you undoubtedly and put her life in your hands." Blake smirks.

"Are you mocking me now?" Yang questions, having recovered from her shock.

Blake feels so tempted to smile and laugh, "Of course not, I would never dare to mock or attempt to make you feel any sort of discomfort Mistress."

Yang gives Blake a skeptical look, and Blake doesn't push her owner anymore. She gives Yang back her weapons and is dismissed by her a few seconds later.

Blake thinks that the testing of her owner has gone rather well.

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_Author Note_

_I hope this chapter was satisfying, any reviews are highly appreciated and I hope to continue this story. It will probably be completed in around 7-10 chapters._


	3. Chapter 2

It's been a few weeks since Blake has been bought by Yang and so far, she has memorized most of the house and cleaned all the rooms to near perfection. Over the course of those weeks, Blake had learned a lot about her owner, courtesy of Yang's talkative mouth. Yang had told Blake she was part of the famous team JPWY, which consisted of Vale's fourth top general, Beacon's current weapons teacher, and the Schnee Dust Company's heiress. Apparently Yang was the only one to not get a high profile job, more content with doing what she was trained to do; mercilessly killing Grimm. The Schnee heiress on the other hand, ugh. There was a burning sensation every time she heard her name. _Weiss_. It sounded pretentious on it's own.

Alright maybe Blake was a little biased but considering that the Schnee Dust Company was one of the wars top donator she felt that she was rightful to be snarky. Internally snarky though. She wouldn't dare to speak her hatred out loud, knowing better then that from experience. On a happier note, Yang didn't forget about her little sister Ruby and how she was studying her third year Beacon. Blake would have found the entire thing very endearing if it wasn't for the fact that whenever Yang talked about her it took 30 minutes of excited rambling to explain how proud she was of her. Blake swore that all four of her ears would pop off if she had to endure another ramble.

But Yang talking isn't what Blake is dealing with right now. Right now she's kneeling over the floor, scrubbing as hard as she can to get rid of dirt stuck in the cracks of the tiles. Pausing for a second to wipe a layer of sweat condensing on her forehead before returning to the task, her work is stopped by a loud knock at the door.

Blake stops her work, waiting a few seconds before another louder knock comes again. If it was Yang coming back from the Grimm hunt, she would have used her keys to enter. Ever since she has been in the house she's never had to deal with strangers. Blake nervously stands and goes to open the door.

A tall man with rather decorative armor featuring a bird with it's wings outstretched is the source of the noise. The man's burnt-orange hair was combed back in a completely unnecessary and prim looking manner, emitting an air of snobbishness. Maybe it was like this to show wealth or to intimidate but if that was the desired affect it didn't work on Blake. Human charms rarely did.

"Hey freak," The man orders sharply, "Call down your owner! I got some business I have to take care of with her," He glares at Blake, a look of contempt and hatred, probably to scare her. It didn't work.

"I am afraid that my owner has not returned from her Grimm hunt yet. I'll take your name for you if you wish and give it to her, sir." Blake knew from first impression that this man was, to say the least, quite unpleasant but she has to be respectful even though she doesn't want to be at all.

The man grunts and rolls his eyes before walking inside the house, making sure to push Blake roughly against the wall as he enters. Blake doesn't say anything, deciding that the man was one of Yang's fellow hunters when she notices all the scratches his armor had taken. He sits on Yang's couch and grumbles, his eyes drifting over to Blake again as she follows him. She stays lingering in the doorway of the living room to observe him a little, just in case.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" He yells.

"Sorry sir." Blake quickly apologizes, bowing as she leaves and returns to her cleaning.

Blake likes to believe that she has her guard on at all times, seeing as all slaves that didn't tended to end up dead and buried, but man makes her completely on edge. He is a cruel reminder that the world is not full of Yang's, and that scares Blake. She should be used to this by now.

After about five minutes, Blake hears her guest get up and walk to where she is. Panicking ever so slightly, Blake pushes the sponge into the tiled floor harder and scrubs faster as if that will help. Maybe if the man could see she was working hard he would leave her alone.

He doesn't.

The man orders Blake to get up and she does as he commands. The man smirks, dark and foreboding way and all to familiar, and he says how he wants to examine her because he's curious about what a Faunus looks like besides the one he has at home. Blake gulps and tenses, instantly feeling sorry for the Faunus slave he owns.

Blake's thought are swiftly broken when he grabs her arm and jabs his thumbs on the side of her torso, not even waiting for her consent. Blake forces herself to remember how her decency is not stored in her body but her mind. The man steps on her left foot and Blake almost lets out a gasp of pain, but she won't give this human the satisfaction of seeing her in agony. Next is more painful when the man taps Blake's shins with his armored feet and gives her legs a rough kick. Blake bends down and manages to catch herself before she falls and she bites back the cry of pain that she was about to yell. The man smirks again and straightens Blake back up and pushes two of his fingers into her mouth, ignoring how he makes her gag and how her eyes water. He pulls away from Blake's mouth and eyes her Fauna ears before giving them a sharp pull and Blake can't help but yell this time.

The man does pull back, satisfied that he made her show pain, and Blake coughs and rubs where he had so roughly hurt her.

"You're not as weak as I thought you would be, I'll give you that." The man shrugged, giving Blake a toothy smile that makes her want to rip his head off.

Fantasies aside, with one last cough, Blake replies with a muttered, "Of course sir."

"Is that all you know how to say? Sir this and sir that, do something interesting you animal!" The man yells out.

"I am sorry, but my Owner has not allowed me to say what I think to anyone yet." Blake murmurs, making sure to not say sir this time around.

The man groaned, almost in pain from the composure this slave shows, despite his rough handling. "You sound so formal for a slave. Mine doesn't pull this kind of shit on me when I tell her to stop."

"Sorry sir, should I change my tone?"

"Are you messing with me?" He interrogates, giving Blake a harsh look.

"Of course not sir."

"You're doing it again!"

"Desperately sorry sir."

"Dammit, just stop saying that!"

"Of course sir."

That was one sir to many. In hindsight, Blake probably shouldn't have pushed him like that, because as soon as she knows it, the man has kicked her stomach and she buckled under to the force. Blake flinches when she see the man crack his knuckles and she feels a sharp pain on her ribs. The sudden jab of pain is nothing she isn't familiar with but that doesn't make it any less horrifying. Blake quickly covers her head and Fauna ears, as experience told her that been the most effective way of protecting herself. In between the kicks and punches, Blake realizes that this was just something Yang should have done in the first place, but the thought passes when more agony flows through her body.

Blake coughs up crimson spittle, her blood filled with the taste of iron, and she feels how the man hit both of her sides and then went to her knees, but he apparently decides that he doesn't want to kill her and gives one last kick to Blake's head. Though Blake isn't awake to see if he had continues with his beating, a moment passes as she delights in the colorless embrace of unconsciousness.

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* * *

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Before Blake had been a slave, her whole life had revolved around her old mentor, Adam. She had lost both of her parents to the war and was too young to remember much about them. Blake loved Adam just like a child would to their parent, as in Blake's case Adam filled the spot where her parents would have been. Blake loved how Adam, so serious but always changed his demeanor when he told the Faunus children about the courageous battles he and the other White Fang members fought against the humans. Blake saw him as a hero and followed his every word as best as she could. Especially in battle, but in the end her efforts weren't enough and she failed.

Blake vividly recalled how Adam's blood had covered her, and it's the old memory of the blood that must make her waking thoughts relevant to her former teacher. The metal like scent is faint, yet Blake can smell the traces of it on her body.

The cat Faunus is on her bed, which wouldn't be a problem, but she had the vague sense that she hadn't fallen asleep on her own accord. It takes her several minutes of slight confusion until the memory reappears as fast as the punches the man threw at her. The beating shows itself in her mind and Blake groans at the memory of it.

Blake wonders what happened to the man but she honestly does not want to think about that right now. Anything relating to that incident hurts, and it's with that when Blake feels her body throb in repressed pain. Deciding to check the damage he inflicted on her, Blake pushes the blanket covering her off of her body and rolls up the legs of her pants. The sight of bandages shocks Blake, solely because she had expected to see uncovered bruises. For a second she wonders if she had put the bandages on herself, but she would know if she had done that. It was Yang most likely. That is, unless the man had some weird urge to heal her which was pretty much impossible. Hopefully he didn't have any other types of urges while she was asleep.

That makes Blake shiver.

Negativity curls itself around her mind. This must have been Yang's plan all along. Have someone beat her and show how bad she could have it. Or perhaps she'd been giving Yang too much credit and it had actually happened on accident. But Blake shouldn't rule out chances. No, you have to think of all the possibilities. Can't leave anything out. That only hurts you in the end.

As much as she wants to get up, Blake knew that since she'd been placed on her bed she might as well stay there. Blake sighs, squirming more into her bed, fighting to ignore the slight jabs of pain and aches that erupts over her body.

Blake waits for a few minutes for someone to check up on her, but she feels her eyes grow heavy and she wants to fall asleep again. Before she can though, the door creaks open and Yang pokes her head in. The huntress does a double take when she sees Blake, her eyes widening as she rushes over to Blake.

"Oh, thank God you're okay! I figured you wouldn't wake up for hours." Yang says with a sigh of relief that Blake wants to believe is fake.

"Looks like I'm better than you thought." Despite Blake's efforts, it was difficult to keep her tone unaffected when her voice comes out so strained, as though she was attempting to speak through a mouthful of sand.

Yang gives Blake a questionable look before she exits the room and disappears for a handful of brief moments, returning with a glass of water and a bowl of soup.

"Here, eat this."

"Is that an order?"

Yang shifts a bit, almost as if she doesn't know the answer. However, she comes to a decision. "Umm, no. I'm just giving you what your supposed to eat when you get hurt. I mean, I'm not a doctor or anything but Beacon did give me some tips on healing. What's wrong? You don't want it?"

"No, I don't like this. You aren't supposed to give me food and try to heal me. Correct me if I'm wrong, and I might be considering that I'm suffering from a few kicks to the head, but I am the slave, and I do your bidding."

Yang groans, now aware how Blake would try to trap her with words and make her say something that she never meant. "Just eat the damn food."

Blake relents, sipping the soup and downing the water in big, heavy gulps. It only went to show how rough she felt. Even though the food and water is relieving, Blake didn't like Yang being in the same room as her. She despises how Yang brought her food. And she completely hates how Yang observes her, like Blake is some sort of pet. But then again Blake might as well be. To bad she can't order Yang to leave.

And so she continues to speak once she feels somewhat ready, not by her own benefit, but because she knows Yang would worry and that thought makes Blake feel rather odd inside. She doesn't like the feeling, whatever it is.

"So, who was the bird man? One of your friends?" Blake asks, though this time she is genuinely curious.

Yang groans as soon as Blake mentions him. "Oh dust. _Cardin_." She sighs in frustration, running her hand through her hair. "I am so sorry about him. He was one of the other teams in my year. I swear that guy has the weirdest crush on me. It's so annoying. I hate him, but now I hate him even more for what he did you."

Blake remained silent at the last sentence, shocked but knowing she shouldn't be. This was probably just another trick.

Yang didn't notice this and went on, oblivious to Blake's chosen silence. "Even his team are complete jerks! I mean Dove isn't so bad but still, not saying much. CRDL, ugh. I still don't know how they all graduated." Yang rants.

Blake looks uninterested, and a bit pained. Yang stops, and hum a bit in concentration.

"You know," She starts, "When Cardin was a first year he and his whole team ran away from an Ursa Major once."

That gets the Faunus attention, and Yang snickers.

"Oh yeah they were always up to something. Kept trying to prove themselves all the time. We, my team I mean, smoothed them out over the years. Like, there was this one time Weiss turned their team training bots up three skill levels. Let's just say they were in infirmary for a week!" Yang laughs, but most of her attention is on Blake to see if she feels better.

Blake chuckles, smiling slightly at the stories.

Yang grins.

"And don't get me started on the times they've hit on Pyrrha! Cardin had a bruise on his face for three days straight, and as soon as that healed he tried using these flowers that got Pyrrha sick from allergies and Jaune nearly threw him off the cliffs in anger. Oh man though when Russel tried it on Weiss you should have seen.."

Yang's rambles are nice sometimes, actually. And Blake feels like her wounds throb a bit less when she describes Cardin's entire team being frozen in ice. There's something in her chest that still hurts though but Blake pushes it away, instead focusing on Yang's exaggerated hand movements and laughs.

.

* * *

.

Yang leaves Blake to rest after around half a hour, telling her to sleep, though she never gave a specific time period. That just makes Blake restless, which is the exact opposite of what she should be doing. She tosses and turns for nearly a day, but restricts herself to her bed as per Yang's instructions. She wonders if Yang could unlock her aura for her, since Blake's was forcibly locked when in the holders, but the idea is ridiculous and stupid so Blake pushes it out of her mind soon enough.

It's odd though. When she was in the White Fang, any second of rest was practically heaven to her. But now rest makes her worry. Rest made her uneasy, almost as if she needed to always be doing something. Labor made the clutch of nervousness go away, even though the work would usually pain her more physically. It must have been a side-effect of well planned slave conditioning. If Blake could give a kudos to the human species it would be how they were able to install fear into others hearts so well.

There's an intense urge to stand up and start vacuuming every dust ball she sees but Yang always catches her and send her back to her room. So when Yang announces she's going on a Grimm hunt for a few hours Blake begins to plan, deciding to get rid of her paranoia then by cleaning.

Exactly four minutes after Yang leave Blake gets up and goes through all her regular tasks as if the incident had never occurred. Stretching out to dust and polish and rearrange ornaments makes her chest flare up in pain, washing dishes makes her arms sore, vacuuming burns her ears with noise, everything hurts but Blake is used to it and pushes through it. She ignores the way that her bones creak and the bruises on her body throb in discomfort, instead letting her thoughts be clouded with urgency and worry to replace pain. For a while it's very numbing.

It's too numbing actually and when Yang comes home earlier than Blake expects the huntresses sees a screeching cat Faunus who just knocked down her flower vase in pure panic at the door opening.

.

* * *

.

The two of them pick up the vase shards, Blake with far more nervousness and Yang with a more lax but irritated pace. After everything is thrown in the trash and cleaned Yang decides it's time for a good old fashioned interrogation.

"What the hell were you doing up? I thought I told you to stay in your bed."

"Was that an order or a suggestion because it was hard to tell by your tone."

Yang splutters and Blake flinches.

"Regardless!" The huntress starts up again, regaining her composition. "Order or not you should use your common sense. Getting out of bed and cleaning the oven until it's sparkly while you know better is not common sense!" Yang points to the offending cooking furtiveness to emphasize her point.

Blake mumbles something inaudible and Yang sighs.

"Sorry I didn't mean to yell. I just... You should go to bed and rest. I'll be back there with some healing stuff soon." Yang rubs her forehead, beginning to turn away to get the med kit.

"I would heal better with aura."

That makes Yang stop and Blake figures that while she's, admittedly stupidly, speaking up she might as well come out with it.

"I-If you could unlock it I'd-"

"No."

Blake's timidness turns to anger, "And why not?"

"It's complicated. I'm not allowed."

"It can be our secret."

"No."

"You don't have to tell anyone, I know how to hide my aura!"

"I said no."

"Please, please just do it for me, it's not that-!"

"Blake I said no!"

"It's not hard please, please, please why can't you-?!"

Yang's eyes go from lilac to red and her fists clench. "I SAID NO."

"You're selfish you know that?!" Blake yells, and old bravery from the White Fang seeps into her veins. "You and your people have taken everything from me! My family, my friends, my body, and my soul! And now when you have the chance to help you just do NOTHING."

The red leaves, and now lilac eyes look at Blake with pity and confusion. "I-I've been doing the best I can..."

"If you were doing your best then I would be _free_!"

And then it stops.

Yang looks scared. For the first time Blake really sees her owners scars, tracing down her arms and legs with little nicks on her hands. Her clothes are muddy and beat up from the Grimm hunt, and her breath is a bit shaky and uneven.

Blake pants, and years of pain and stress shows itself. There's bile in her throat and everything smells like blood. Every wound beats with her heart, letting the throbs ring across her body. She gulps, her throat feels so dry and nothing is right.

"... I... I'm sorry."

The huntress looks down at the floor.

"Go back to your room Blake." Yang orders, a firm tone in her voice for once.

Blake shakily bows and it feels like everything in her mind is screaming all at once when she goes back to her room and hears her Owner's too light footsteps go upstairs.

A creeping sense of anxiety and nervousness wraps around her like a snake. Blake tries to ignore it. It doesn't work.

.

* * *

.

_Authors Note_

_In this AU, Yang is a graduate of Beacon and has a team named JPWY; Jaune, Pyrhha, and Weiss. Ruby has not moved up and is at her third year at Signal. Additional information, Blake is 21 while Yang is 22. The White Fang is also not a terrorist organization, just the name for the Faunus military. Beyond that, I'm not going to expand to much on the world unless there is a need to. If I do introduce the other characters I will tell you more about their placement in this AU._


	4. Chapter 3

After forty days of being there, and exactly a day after their spat, Blake is allowed out to Yang's garden in her house's backyard. She didn't perform such cliched things like niche out tallies on the walls of her room or something equally stupid to count the days, there was a calender in the house after all, although the unfortunate Faunus entertained the idea ever so slightly. Unfortunately, upon exiting the house and walking into the actual sun, Blake was treated to the realization of how pale she was from lack of vitamin D in her diet and the fact that she had only gotten light from lamps and mostly closed shades. Contemplating this, Blake decided to start opening the windows of the house more and go outside when she was allowed to.

Despite the mild shock of the outdoors, Blake was thankful for the sunlight and fresh air. Not that she would ever admit that to Yang. Though the main problem was that she honestly didn't know if she would be useful in any form of plant care. It wasn't taught in the slave holds and Blake had never really taken care of plants before she was taken by the humans. Then again, as she looked at nicely trimmed bushes and what she believed to be a lemon tree, Blake wasn't sure if Yang really did need her help with gardening. Especially that, as the faunus looked around more, the yard seemed more tidier than Yangs house. Well, after Blake had gotten there of course.

Before taking Blake outside, Yang had explained that the cultivation of the plants was something her teammates had suggested to her in order to maintain a more, she had paused while searching for the right word to use, _tranquil_ state of mind. It was apparent to Blake that Yang was more reckless in her younger years, and Blake tries to push away the memories of her and Yang's fight as far away as possible. Red eyes couldn't be the only thing Yang has but Blake doesn't want to mention anything relating to aura again. Not for a while at least.

Yang smiles, handing Blake a rake, saying that she only needed to get rid of some weeds and fallen leaves today. Blake took note of how Yang said 'today' and began mental preparations for more daunting tasks in the future. Predictably enough though, in Blake's mind at least, being in the dark for too long apparently made you more susceptible to heat. In this case, the faunus finds herself sweating much more than she remembered ever doing for a task as mundane as this.

Then again, it was about time that Blake feels more challenged during her tasks. Not to say that she wasn't during her recovery period, and even now Blake still has aches from time to time. Cardin did do a number on her, and the memory of the pain is enough to make Blake dig the rake harder into the earth.

The blonde huntress looks over to Blake again, noticing the way the Faunus's rake scratched the earth in a more rough pattern. Blake ignored the concerned gaze Yang has on her, instead wondering if the rake would be enough to strike the huntress on the back of the head and knock her unconscious. The Faunus smirks at the inevitable failure the idea would lead to once she recalled how persistent humans could be when they search for escapees. Besides, it's not like a rake would actually work against someone that well trained with aura. Though it would be fun to see the handle break.

The sound of Yang turning her back to go work on an undercut bush makes Blake lightly sigh in relief. Yang's boots reminds the raven haired faunus of the sound that one of her old friends in the White Fang boots used to make. Blake couldn't remember them all to well after so long, but the vague flashback lets her know that at least some of her old self was intact. Or maybe memories didn't really have anything to do with a person's sense of self? The question haunted Blake's thoughts, and prompted her to begin what, in her thoughts, was the third book in a series focused on the life of a faunus war veteran named Bravke, who struggled between two sides of their self.

Imagination taking her away, Blake saw her bare hands covered by gloves and the rake she holds is no longer a gardening tool, but the handle of a broken katana. The blade had been broken off by the veterans other self, an entity who Blake had called Maître, and the ground was now covered in the blood of both fighters. The battle was taking place in the veterans mind, and Maître had the upper hand. Words coming to Blake like sheep to slaughter, the faunus pressed her lips tightly as she imagined the tide of the battle turning due to Bravke's old teacher Diriger failing to give the hero external support. Diriger was attempting to stir up Bravke's aura, using his own in his seemingly vain attempts. Blake was now thinking of the climax of her imaginary novel, having Maître yelled at a broken and bruised Bravke in order to destroy the hero's last hopes to survive.

The trance of minor bliss found in her thoughts was broken when Yang screams loudly out of shock. The shriek makes Blake snap out of her daydream and turn around to the blonde, who has just punched a harmless garden snake out of the garden with a mixture of pure strength and fear.

Yang falls out of her fighting stance, panting a little, her gauntlets collapsing back into bracelets, the shock of the reptile causing her heart to skip quite a few beats. Blake stares at the recovering huntress, snickering a little at the scene.

"What's so funny?" Yang asked, turning to Blake with a pout.

Blake grins, talking before she even realizes what she's saying, "It's just funny to see you, a fully graduated huntress, afraid of some silly little snake."

Yang simply blinked in response and Blake's next breath hitches. The Faunus's face instantly drains of color, her brain filling with Maître's screams, except now the yells and insults are real. The Faunus instinctively takes a small step back and closes her eyes, gripping the rake in hopes that it might protect her from an onslaught of punches that Blake is certain will come.

Instead, Blake hears laughter.

Opening her eyes, it was her who stares as Yang laughs. The huntress's shoulders shake with giggles and she smiles widely at Blake. It was now the Faunus's turn to blink in surprise, as she didn't expect Yang to laugh.

Blake also didn't expect the next thing Yang said, "Wow Blake, you're _hisstarical_!"

Yang waggles her eyebrows, "Come on, get it? Hisstarical instead of hysterical?! It's a pun!" The huntress moves her hands expectantly in the direction of her shocked servant. "Ehh? Ehhhh?"

For a second Blake thought Yang had the mental age of a 12 year old as she sees Yang smiling again and prodding Blake further, "Come on Blake, _adder_ some puns in!"

The faunus racks her brain for her limited knowledge of snake puns and says with a deadpan face, "Don't be an asp."

Another round of laughter proceeded Blake's bad pun as Yang doubles over in chuckles. The sight was infectious Blake finds herself snickering, although she makes sure not to giggle to the extremes Yang did, and the faunus genially smiles in what felt like forever.

Blake loosens her grip on the rake, amber eyes lit up with a twinkle of a spark that had been dulled for so long.

.

* * *

.

Ten days after first being let into the garden, a mid-day knock at the door brings a visitor wearing black and red.

The visitor is young, with silver eyes looking curiously at Blake who feels uncomfortable under the cloaked girls stare. The young girl is cheerful, however, and something about the way she holds herself makes Blake almost want to smile out of a vague sense of nostalgia. She's wearing a red cape, complete with a mostly black outfit with a nice red weave on the underside of her skirt. The maroon looking highlights on her hair blend in too much with her black hair, but Blake doesn't comment, instead deciding to bow and ask who the girl was and why she wants to visit Yang.

It takes only five words into the question when Blake hears the aforementioned huntress's footsteps pound on the hardwood floor towards the visitor. Blake leaps to the side when she hears the sound, and if she wasn't so busy dodging she would be happy that some of her training is still there. With what can be confused as a war cry, Yang attempts to tackle the silver eyed girl without hesitation. Luckily the black clothed guest jumps clear too, which causes Yang top be flung out of her own house when she finds nothing to hug onto.

Yang crashes onto the front porch, eliciting a flinch from Blake and the visitor in sympathy, but the huntress gets up in a few seconds, courtesy of her aura shielding her. The caped visitor laughed playfully at Yang, which caused Yang to turn and glare at her.

"Ruby!" Yang yells, rushing over to whom Blake now realizes is Ruby, and giving her a proper hug. Granted, a proper hug is not the best thing to call it. Yang virtually squeezes Ruby into her chest; the younger girl attempting to get away with frantic whispers and squirming. Blake backs away a bit once Yang let Ruby go in order to allow the girl to have space to breathe.

Ruby gasps for air flinging her arms all over the place in the most dramatic way possible, spluttering out a comment about Yang's death grip before leaning on the wall with a groan. Blake laughs under her breath at the scene.

"Oh don't be so over dramatic." Yang playfully rolls her eyes, gently pushing her sister into the house. The two siblings begin to chat with each other, Yang bringing Ruby to her room.

Blake closes the front door, wondering if she should follow the two, but eventually deciding against it. After all, her presence is unneeded and most likely unwanted. The faunus instead goes to the kitchen to prepare a snack for them, already coming up with a good meal due to how Yang told her about how much Ruby adored cookies. Once the snack, mainly made of light pastries and other treats, was finished Blake headed up to Yang's room.

Blake heads up to the room, hearing little parts of their conversation. It's some things she's heard before from Yang's rambles, about how Ruby is starting a new trimester at Signal Academy and how she wants to get into Advanced Mechanics. What's new is Ruby's complaints about one of the teachers, and how he is too skeptical of Ruby's maturity to let her in to the class. Blake hears Yang sigh and shift in her bed, probably giving Ruby a hug of reassurance.

Deciding that she doesn't want to overhear too much of the sisterly bonding, mostly because she doesn't want to seem like a spy, the Faunus knocks on the door to signal that she is here. It takes a few seconds but Yang calls Blake to enter and she does, setting the snacks down on the table next to Yang's bed. Ruby smiles at her, going to grab a few cookies from the plate with almost lightning speed. Blake smirks at the girls eagerness so she bows slightly, about to make her way out, before Yang asks her to stay.

Blake blinks in confusion, looking at Yang awkwardly in an attempt to non-verbally ask her why she would invite her to stay in her room. The huntress just smiles, saying that Ruby wanted to know more about her. To that Blake gives Ruby a questioning look, the faunus barely able to comprehend why anyone, a human no less, would want to know more about her.

"So... Uh, Blake... Yang told me that you like books...?" Ruby says a bit oddly, as if she didn't really know how to start a conversation with Blake at all.

"I do."

The silence that follows reminds Blake of one of those old situation comedy TV shows where a dust ball would blow across the room. Yang griminess a bit but forces a smile, asking if Ruby would like to share what kinds of books she liked to read.

The teen squirms a little at the question, buts pulls out a crumpled magazine that had the title 'Weapons And YOU!' on the cover. Ruby flattens out the book and flipped to a certain page, showing Blake a picture of a large scythe which was circled many, many times in a red highlighter.

"I'm going to base my weapon off of this model!" Ruby pauses, pointing to the mid-point pole part of the scythe, "But I'm going to add a high caliber sniper rifle to it that will boost my speed and capability to fight Grimm and maneuver better!" The girl smiles widely, pointing out her improvements and going on a ramble about how the gun part of the scythe would work to let her fight better.

It was literally a complete mood change, but Blake finds herself nodding her head when Ruby brings up the rebound boost when the weapon would be fired. The Faunus had many experiences with it when Gambol Shroud was still in her possession. Before she knows it, Blake has pointed out a few miscalculations with Ruby's weapon design; the girl scribbling notes down and thanking her for the insight. The both of them talk about the weapon, but the conversation moves onto Ruby's life and her classes. There's something about Ruby's childlike innocence that makes Blake so into the conversation.

"...And of course there's smelly old Mr. Brutto who teaches history and I can't stand his boring lectures! Always blabbering about this and that, how his toupee looks extra good today. He treats Melinie so horribly! I feel so bad for her. I wish everyone could see " Ruby rants, grumbling and crossing her arms out of frustration.

Blake gives her a sympathetic smile, "Who is Melinie? A friend?"

"No, she's... A..." There's an abrupt pause and Ruby bites her lip, suddenly finding her skirt more interesting than this conversation. Yang chuckles a bit nervously and all of a sudden the air is tense.

"A Faunus slave." Blake finishes for her.

Ruby nods her head and looks at Yang, who sighs. Blake takes a breath in and her shoulders tense. She doesn't know why they do. She knows there are slaves out there besides her but something just... It just feels so wrong.

"Hey uh, Blake," Yang speaks, passing her slave the plate, "Mind putting this in the dishwasher? You can come back up when you're done, if you feel like it."

It's something to get her away from the room to let Yang re-take the controls but Blake just nods and grabs the plate, making her way downstairs. After closing the door she waits for a few seconds and hears Ruby frantically apologizing to Yang while the huntress tries to calm her down. Blake goes downstairs and puts the dish away, then goes to her room.

Blake doesn't come back up, even when she hears the cab coming to take Ruby back to Signal.

.

* * *

.

It's the middle of the night before Blake wakes.

An aching sensation in her stomach was the culprit in ruining her sleep. Blake groans and sits up from her bed, rubbing the back of her head and her tired eyes. After a while, the small ache stops, and Blake lies back on her bed, wondering if she had eaten something that was expired or not prepared correctly. That idea is preposterous, first of all Yang wouldn't buy bad products and Blake is very confident in her cooking abilities.

The Faunus attempts to fall asleep also failed. Another groan, one out of frustration, and Blake sits up in her bed again and turns to get out of it. A slight hesitation stops her before she steps on the floor, her mind remembering the slave holders curfews. Shaking her head to rid herself of the old rules, Blake lets her feet touch the floor and stands.

She instinctively turns her head to search for... No one. Blake promptly frowns in response to her own reflexes. There are no alarms, no slave holders to catch her, and there was nothing she's supposed to be afraid of.

Her logic does nothing to prevent the lump in her throat and the nervousness of taking her next step. Internally cursing her paranoia, the Faunus makes her steps quick and light in order to silence the mental voices telling her to get back to bed and hope she wouldn't get beaten for insolence.

Blake's walking, more of a light jogging really, leads her to the kitchen. The Faunus pours herself a glass of cold water, hoping the drink will calm her down. The late night 'snacking' brings thoughts that usually come in serene quiet of the night. Blake is a bit regretful that she didn't see Ruby off. The girl was nice and even made her forget about the world, if only for a bit.

The Faunus swirls her glass of water, staring at the liquid with a glazed look.

Now that she thought about it, the glass wasn't really _her_ glass. It was bought by Yang and the water in the glass was payed for by Yang. Blake sighs, noting that even her room wasn't really her room. It was just a crummy make-shift basement bedroom that was in Yang's house. No, not everything. Bravke and her stories are her own, they were just written on Yang's paper with Yang's pen. Blake groans and face palms herself. Another sip of water makes Blake wonder if anything actually did belong to her, something that she could take and keep with her. Something to validate her existence, if objects can even do that in the first place.

Blake gulps down the rest of the drink, puts the glass away in the dishwasher, and gets up to go back to her room. The Faunus frowns again at the wording of her own thoughts, but decided to keep the pronoun if only because it was just too hard to think about it another way.

As she walks through the house again she feels like her steps are more confident and not rushed, which makes her smile. Nearly to the basement, Blake looks up at the stairs to her owners room, working out what Yang would look like while asleep. Maybe she wore a tank-top with shorts and was flopped all over the bed in a haphazard manner. Her hair would probably be all messed up. That was probably the reason Yang showered everyday and had way more hair care products then would be considered humanly possible. Yang would be snoring of course, maybe even breathing out a comical snot bubble.

Blake smacks herself on the head for the weird thoughts of seeing her owner sleeping, of all things. Honestly, that was weird...

Blake wonders if she should go back to self-loathing thoughts instead, since at least they didn't make the Faunus feel uncomfortable like this. The hateful thoughts were old, familiar, and it's easy to find a semblance of comfort in familiarity even though it was born in years of self-deprivation and sadness. In that moment, Blake hits herself again once she realized how depressed she sounded.

Then again, she probably is depressed. Slavery kind of did that you after a while.

Abandoning the more than awkward musings about her owner's look when sleeping and mental issues, Blake goes back to bed and tried to sleep.

The Faunus falls into a dark slumber in no time.

.

* * *

.

_Authors Note_

_Ruby joins in! I hope that this chapter is alright, since it is a bit filler in the grand scheme of things. Don't worry though, Ruby will come again but not for a little while first.  
_

_Also I will include more of Yang's team in the next few chapters.  
_


	5. Chapter 4

It has been a long time since Blake has seen a city. An actual city, not some prison or a temporary settlement used to hold slaves but an _actual_ city.

The Faunus finds herself nervous, amber eyes flicking to every little movement and person walking by. Cities used to be something Blake found familiarity in, having grown up in urban jungles and grimy alleyways. Now she feels foreign, as if there is too little to grasp in these clean streets and tidy stores.

It's just been so long since Blake had stepped on a sidewalk and been able to view crowds of people moving at their own pace without leashes or swollen skin that, for a minute, she wonders if this has ever actually happened to her before. The thought is of course illogical as Blake fondly has many memories of Adam taking her out to some random town to train new troops there or simply go to relax. The Faunus takes a shaky breath as her mind wonders if those memories weren't just an effect of Blake fighting to regain sanity, or if they truly, truly existed.

People walk by, glaring and snickering at Blake; some even turning their heads in disgust. A couple walk side by side to each other, gasping at Blake's cat ears and putting their hands over their child's eyes. A dog barks at her, the owner griping the leash loosely and snickering at the idea of letting go and seeing what havoc that might cause. A man coughs and blushes when he notices her, putting a hand to separate him and the Faunus from view.

Blake is shown yet hidden.

She breaths in, and then out deeply, straightening her posture and keeping her eyes leveled in front of her. She was not afraid. She would not be afraid. She was never going to be afraid of these humans.

Yang is right next to Blake as the two of them walk through the crowded streets. The blonde huntress has her hand between her slave's shoulder blades, lightly guiding her through the mob of people that part to let them through; as if coming to close to Blake will result in some kind of disease.

The Faunus feels gentle fingers rubbing her back slightly and doesn't know whether to flinch and show discomfort or relax into the attempt to comfort her. Blake subtly leans closer to Yang when a burly human passes by and licks his grimy lip while eying her up like meat on a rack. Yang gives him a sharp glare, one Blake knows is commonly used to stop others from ogling their property, and the crowd begins to get the idea that Blake is not meant to be harassed if the now fully weaponized gauntlets on Yang's wrists have anything to say.

Memories of Adam leading a young Blake across war encampments fly through the Fauna's mind, Yang's light guiding pushes bringing back times when Blake was far too innocent and had no idea how to work a gun or get around a White Fang settlement without running into random tents by accident.

Blake breaths in and out deeply and stiffens suddenly, trying to quell painful remembrances of those very same camps set a flame. Yang's hand twitches and moves away from her back, most likely thinking she has touched Blake too much. The Faunus would speak up and pull Yang's hand back, to have something to guide her through all too bigoted crowds and angry glares but stops as the huntress takes a few more step to open a shop door. Yang gives her a grin, glancing at Blake to signal her to come in.

The Faunus bites her lip and follows Yang into the store, carefully peering in to see lines of books running across the walls and the old smell of paper wafting throughout the building. Blake smiles ever so slightly at the lines of novels and familiar scent of fresh writing pads that generously fill the shop's levels.

Yang looks back at Blake, noticing her blissful closed eyes and happiness among the books. She smiles too.

The moment of joy cannot last uninterrupted, and a worker comes over and asks the two if they needed any help. It was normal and expected but Blake is a bit taken aback at how the employee has addressed her as well, not just Yang. The huntress doesn't seem to notice and turns to Blake with a silent question of what she wanted to do.

It takes her a few seconds to answer, as she was still not used to this type of directness from anyone, but she eventually manages to stutter out how she wants to go to the adult historical fiction section. The worker happily obliges, leading both of them to the correct place and gives them a wave signaling how he now had to leave.

"So, what do you want to get?" Yang suggestively holds up a few novels with various humans staring out of the cover, frivolous attempts to be as dramatic as possible.

The feeling of discomfort rises up in Blake's chest again. "Are you sure this is alright?"

"What do you mean?" Yang asks, her arms dropping a bit. "Not into these kinds of books? I mean, the covers are a bit tacky but-"

"No." Blake interrupts, "I mean... Buying the books in general. That's not weird to you...?"

The huntress furrows her brow, completely lost. "I know I'm not that much of a reader but give me some credit here Blake."

A sigh. "No, I meant buying the books for me. Spending your hard earned money on me? A Faunus slave? Someone _technically_ lower than you on the social ladder?" Blake gestures to herself, rolling her hands in a 'please add to this conversation' type way.

"Does this not click with you in any way at all...?" Blake continues, slowly shrugging for emphasis and leaving the question up in the air.

Yang puts the books down on the counter. "To answer that, it doesn't affect me in the way you think. I don't care what other people say about Faunus, you guys aren't bad, or lower."

There is an audible gasp from a woman behind them, Blake instinctively tensing up and curling into herself slightly in response. Yang on the other hand seems to not notice. Either that or she ignored it completely, and it was hard to tell.

"But-!" Blake begins.

"Nope!" Yang quickly interruptes. "Now. The real question here is what book do _you_ want to buy because I did not haggle Pyrrha into giving me a gift-card for this place only to not use it on you."

Blake blinks as Yang suddenly thrusts a book into her face. The title was labeled as "Dust and Our History" and it sure lived up to its name. The Faunus crinkled her nose to stop a sneeze.

"I'm waiting for your answer." Yang sings, lightly tapping Blake's forehead with the textbook.

"...I'll start shopping."

Yang smiles.

* * *

The trip back to Yang's house is much easier than the first one to the book store.

A large pile of books, exactly seven heavy novels and ten lighter paperbacks if you want to be precise, are carefully in place inside of three well-worn fabric bags adorned on Blake's arms. They weren't extremely heavy as one might expect, but Faunus tended to be a bit stronger than the average human. The slave holders made sure of that at least.

Yang on the other hand carries a light packet of gum in her pocket and a new spare fire dust bullet clip for her gauntlet; which had been reserved to her especially by Weiss. There is always an awkwardness whenever Yang mentions Weiss for obvious reasons, primarily about the participated enslavement and exploitation of Blake's race, so Yang tries not to bring her partner up whenever possible.

Blake however can always notice the pauses in Yang's sentence where a story about Weiss would fill. It must be hard for her to not mention her partner, and Blake reckons she doesn't know a lot about Yang's life because of the omission. It makes her sad, the omission and lack of knowing about Yang's past, but at the same time Blake isn't sure she could handle hearing too much about Weiss.

Maybe it's easier for her to think of Weiss as a monster and not as a human; though the line between both had blurred a long time ago.

"So..." Yang starts looking at the bags Blake holds around her arms. "You uh, you need help with that?"

"No."

The huntress makes a 'hum' of acceptance, popping in another piece of gum into her mouth. That was her third piece, and at this rate the gum was going to be an unholy mushy blob.

Blake wonders if Yang stress eats. She seems like the type to. "You like gum, don't you?"

"Huh? Oh yeah." Yang replies, turning over the packet in her hands. "You want some?"

Blake nods, trying to reach for the packet even with the bags on her arms. Yang gives her a slightly worried look, and takes off the wrapper of one and asks her to open her mouth; saying how it would be way easier for her to not move the books just in case.

That makes more sense.

Blake sticks out her tongue, Yang giving her another weird look before realizing she's supposed to place the gum on it; which she does in due time.

The gum is minty and tastes like the strawberries some Faunus farmers gave the soldiers when they passed by the Atlas farming fields, and Blake wonders if the White Fang ever gave back money or service to them after the war. Hopefully they did. Those people were nice.

Yang coughs. "Hey, Blake?"

The Faunus snaps out of her day dream, turning back to Yang quickly. "Yes?"

"You alright? You're kind of staring off into space. Strawberry gum isn't _that_ good."

Blake smiles slightly. "It is for me."

The huntress perks up. "Is it your favorite flavor or something?" She asks this, turning the packet over to the title side.

"No. You wouldn't understand."

Yang lets out a sigh. "There are a lot of things I don't understand about you."

Interesting word choice. "I can hear that you know," Blake replies, flicking her left cat ear for emphasis.

There's a look of surprise, then an; "Oh really?", then a cough and finally, a smirk from Yang. "Maybe I wanted you to hear me. You've fallen right into my trap Miss Belladonna!" She proclaims loudly, and Blake is happy there isn't many people here now that rush hour is over, because the Faunus, against her better judgement, can't help but smile too.

"And what purpose would that trap serve?" She asks.

"Isn't it obvious?" Yang replies, crossing her arms with a victorious grin.

"No. Not really."

Yang shakes her head as if to shame. "Well Blake, it's to learn more about you."

Blake hums in a 'is that so' sort of way, adjusting the books on her arms while doing so. "What do you want to know?" She asks, deciding to humor Yang a bit.

"Um..." The huntress taps her chin in thought, not used to this amount of openness from her. "Oh! Have you ever been to Mystral ? I know the Faunus took it from humans in the war, I've always wanted to see it though. Heard it has pretty some big tundra and mountains."

"It was breathtaking." Blake commented, taking in a breath as if to feel the cool air of Mystral once again. "The sunset comes over the mountains in just the right way, I used to stare at it with... Friends."

Another pause and the chatter of two woman walking in front of them fills the silence.

Yang looks away from Blake for a second. "You had friends?" With a jolt she whips back to Blake. "Not saying that you can't make friends! I mean-!"

"I know what you mean." She cuts her off quick, the last thing Blake wants is another ramble right now.

The huntress blushes slightly at the direct response. "Oh, yeah. So, what were they like?"

"Who?"

"Your friends."

Blake bites her lip in mild discomfort, taking a breath to steel herself. "Who my friends were is none of your concern. I haven't seen them for so long anyway, so I imagine they've all forgotten me by now."

"Forget you?"

"I was..." Blake hesitates again, trying to pick the right word. "Extracted. From my home, so to speak. It's not a subject I like to talk about."

Yang seems to take the hint and the conversation stops again. Blake is thankful for the silence, silence for her at least since she is more than equipped to tune out anything and anyone around her, although the same couldn't be said for Yang.

What Blake finds so weird about her master is that she was so... Ignorant? No, not ignorant... Persistent? Yes, that's it. It's odd to find someone who pretends to care, or in Yang's case does care, but it's not like Blake trusts her all too much on that front either. No, but then again it would be hard to maintain a front for what was it, a few months at the most.

Maybe Yang should be an actor instead of a hunter if she was pretending.

That would be funny, seeing the huntress on stage. She would probably play in those sappy romantic leads, just some actor who falls in love with the dark, heroic, yet stoic protagonist. Not like Blake would watch any movie though. She was more of a book type of girl. Words were far better than any technology in her opinion, screens just diminished interaction.

Huh. She should write that down.

The loud pop of chewing gum makes Blake jump a bit in surprise. It seems like she really did tune out everything again. She really needs to break that habit.

"So, Blake," Yang starts again. Dust, she really is persistent isn't she? "Is Atlas a nice country? Does it really have eight foot cacti?"

Eight foot cacti? "It is a desert region but the plants there aren't that big. It's a hunting area with underground and cliff built cities to stay away from the heat. I never liked it, but its fine for a visit."

Yang looks impressed. "You've really been to places, haven't you? All I've ever been to is places in crummy old Vale. It gets so _boring_ after a while, you know?" She ranted, throwing her arms up in emphasis.

"I didn't stay in many places for long. My group and I were always traveling around." Blake added, wanting to smack her face into one of the 400 page hardcover textbook she had bought as soon as she spoke again.

"Why? Were you avoiding something?"

Maybe Blake could slam two books onto her head at the same time, then she wouldn't have to answer any questions. "Yes." Dear Dust, don't continue the conversation, don't continue the conversation...

"Oh, ha, it must have been Grimm right?" The huntress said, unsheathing her left gauntlet for extra effect. She gave Blake a wink, smiling widely. The emphasis is overly dramatic, but it gives Blake relief all the same.

The Faunus nods. "Yes. Atlas was full of Grimm when I last saw it." Blake could have easily lied, why did she even panic in the first place? Must have been a spur of the moment thing, it happened all the time.

"What kind of Grimm did they have there? Some kind of badger mole things or lots of weird snake mutants?"

The corner of Blake's lips turn up. "Not exactly."

* * *

The hissing sound of burgers on the pan filled the typical silence of the kitchen, signifying the food that was to come. Dinner time was Blake's favorite meal to cook, as breakfast was too early in the morning and lunch just felt like a hassle. Though it wasn't like she enjoyed cooking much, it was more of a mundane things for her in all honesty; just like most of the slave tasks she did were.

However, this session was different. Blake had put one of the books she bought near by the stove, propped up by a makeshift stand made of a salt shaker and two forks. There was a lot of things the Faunus had missed when she was in the slave holders. Apparently there was a large rebellion against slavery about two years ago, a mass murder spree of around fifty people when a group of Faunus broke out a holder and went on a rampage. It was aptly named "The Atlas Atrocity", which Blake found funny because of its alliteration.

A man named Tukson had lead the revolt and although the book degraded him for his actions, Blake found an intense respect for the man. If only he wasn't executed with his followers, maybe there would be some more hope to the story. Oh well.

The main thing with the book was how badly worded it was against the Faunus, and if it wasn't criticizing them, then it ignored the race completely.

Maybe she should have gotten more fictional ones instead, but then again she wasn't picky right now. Just reading an actual book was enough to tide her over for a while.

With a flip of the burgers and a flip of the page, Blake eagerly read through the recent history in Vale and Atlas. She took in as much knowledge as she could, albeit quickly skimming over the badly written Faunus parts. She was also making sure that the food wasn't going to burn, but it wasn't her main priority.

The chapter Blake was reading talked about Hunters, and the creation of each hunting academy. It was at the middle of the Beacon chapter, almost forty pages from the last time Faunus had been mentioned, that is the book talked about Blake's race again.

_'Although Beacon was created for fighting the Grimm, it was with the urge of Vales government council that veteran students would be sent out to again at the Faunus where intense reinforcements were needed. This tactic was rarely used however, but many students volunteered to fight for the freedom of their race.'_

Blake takes a breath, her heart beating a mile a minute.

_'Although the decree was not passed for five years until the wars end there were many shining examples of heroism. Hunter Teams such as the legendary KILO, RNSG, EKSJ, and FIRN were main fighters in stopping the war and providing support for the soldiers; taking places as generals, scouts, and spies.'_

Spies.

_'After the war, some students still have volunteered for border patrol and Faunus watching.'_

Faunus watching.

Something taps her shoulder.

Blake spins around, the spatula she is holding smacks on a surface and she stumbles back, her lower back hitting the oven.

"Blake..?"

Yang has blocked the strike with her aura, but the huntress still backs away from her slave in shock. It's not the sudden attack that's worrying her, its Blake.

Blake is worried too. No, not worried. Terrified. Her heart feels like its screaming, her vision is blurry, and nothing makes any sense. Yang wouldn't want to spy on her, she wouldn't be watching her, she can't... She can't hate her. No, no this is _all_ wrong. Just paranoia. Just anxiety. It's fine. She's fine. It's okay. Okay. No.

No. It's not okay.

"Blake? Are you okay?"

Blake snaps up, her heart pounding and the words Yang's says after those are garbled and confusing.

Yang takes a step closer, her arms raised to reach out to her. She's saying something, but it's all white sound and Blake can't take seeing her right now.

So she runs.

Her room is safe, and the rush to it is blurry and fast but the door slams behind her and she takes big gulps of air.

Why is she like this? Yang has been nothing but kind, but nice but...

But a liar.

She's pretending. She has to be pretending. It's part of Beacon's program. Faunus watching. God, so stupid. So fucking stupid. Why? How could she even trust a human? Stupid, stupid, stupid Blake. Stupid monster. Idiot Faunus.

Blake pulls her legs to her chest, trying to breathe. Breathe in. Breathe out.

She remembers Velvet patting her back and saying how they would get revenge one day. Sun taking watch and biting his lip, taking glances at them before going back to the halls.

Why are they gone?

She wants them back. She wants Velvet and Sun and Adam and everyone back.

There's a pounding on door that makes Blake curl in on herself. She knows its Yang. That she's saying something but it's all just gibberish.

Blake's lips are moving too but she doesn't know what she's saying. It's too garbled.

She does know the pounding stops, and after a while footsteps signal Yang is gone.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Cry.

.

* * *

.

_Authors Note_

_Okay yes, I know that this story has not been updated in a while and I apologize for that. I've just had a horribly terrible bad patch in my life recently. I figured I have depression, I came out to my parents and they took it horribly, and I'm pretty certain I am not doing well._

_However this story is. I have rewritten all the chapters so they are actually coherent and make sense. Please re-read them!_

_Also I have made another Poll, which will help me decide where to go more in the story. Please vote.  
_


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